Miller: Government shutdown was doomed to fail

Published: Wednesday, November 6, 2013 at 05:45 PM.

FORT WALTON BEACH — U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller said if the United States does not get its spending under control, the country will not be able to sustain its debt and will collapse financially.

Miller was the guest speaker at Wednesday’s lunch meeting of the Rotary Club of Fort Walton Beach. He talked about the challenges in Washington, D.C., and his thoughts on what it will take to turn the country around fiscally.

“If we don’t change the spending trajectory and get the debt down … by about 2036 we’re going to hit a point where our economy is going to be shaken like it has never been before if we can’t get things fixed before then,” Miller said.

While there is a perception that Republicans and Democrats cannot agree on anything, Miller said the two sides actually get along 90 percent of the time.

However, the major issues of spending and the Affordable Care Act are cases in which they remain worlds apart.

“We have reached, I think, a point that many of us had hoped that we would never get to, and that is total isolation where you have the left going out the one side and the right going out the other side and nobody wants to come to the middle and try to solve the problems that are out there,” Miller said. “We all have ideas and solutions and nobody wants to give to try to solve the problems that exist out there today.”

Miller said he knew the government shutdown, the Republicans’ attempt to defund President Barack Obama’s health care legislation, would fail. He said some of his House colleagues thought the shutdown would force the Democrat-led Senate and Obama to yield.

“We knew, I knew … we were going to vote to do this, the Senate wasn’t going to vote and eventually we will reopen the government because there will be enough pressure,” Miller said.

He believes House Republicans would have had more leverage on health care if they had tacked it on to discussion about the debt ceiling.

Contact Daily News Business Editor Dusty Ricketts at 850-315-4448 or dricketts@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @DustyRnwfdn.

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FORT WALTON BEACH — U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller said if the United States does not get its spending under control, the country will not be able to sustain its debt and will collapse financially.

Miller was the guest speaker at Wednesday’s lunch meeting of the Rotary Club of Fort Walton Beach. He talked about the challenges in Washington, D.C., and his thoughts on what it will take to turn the country around fiscally.

“If we don’t change the spending trajectory and get the debt down … by about 2036 we’re going to hit a point where our economy is going to be shaken like it has never been before if we can’t get things fixed before then,” Miller said.

While there is a perception that Republicans and Democrats cannot agree on anything, Miller said the two sides actually get along 90 percent of the time.

However, the major issues of spending and the Affordable Care Act are cases in which they remain worlds apart.

“We have reached, I think, a point that many of us had hoped that we would never get to, and that is total isolation where you have the left going out the one side and the right going out the other side and nobody wants to come to the middle and try to solve the problems that are out there,” Miller said. “We all have ideas and solutions and nobody wants to give to try to solve the problems that exist out there today.”

Miller said he knew the government shutdown, the Republicans’ attempt to defund President Barack Obama’s health care legislation, would fail. He said some of his House colleagues thought the shutdown would force the Democrat-led Senate and Obama to yield.

“We knew, I knew … we were going to vote to do this, the Senate wasn’t going to vote and eventually we will reopen the government because there will be enough pressure,” Miller said.

He believes House Republicans would have had more leverage on health care if they had tacked it on to discussion about the debt ceiling.

Contact Daily News Business Editor Dusty Ricketts at 850-315-4448 or dricketts@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @DustyRnwfdn.